Texas ASC Sees 47% Labor Savings with PREFcards for Preference Card Management
Case study: Baylor Scott & White Surgicare in Fort Worth measured PREFcards against paper and EHR-based preference card systems — and found 47% faster card management and a 45% increase in surgeon satisfaction.
Overview
Customer: Baylor Scott & White Surgicare — Fort Worth, TX Challenge: Decrease labor time maintaining surgeon preference cards Results: 47% labor savings and 45% increase in surgeon satisfaction
In early 2022, Baylor Scott & White (BSW) Surgicare in Fort Worth, TX engaged with PREFcards to measure and assess the impact a modern digital preference card platform would have on their surgical services.
With over 14,000 cases performed annually — including Orthopedics, Gynecology, Plastic Surgery, and ENT — across hundreds of surgeons and staff in 10 Operating Rooms and 4 Treatment Rooms, BSW Surgicare understood that any efficiency gain would compound into significant annual savings.
The Study
BSW and PREFcards compared the labor time required to complete three key tasks related to maintaining accurate preference cards:
- Creating a new preference card
- Editing an existing card
- Determining cost per surgical case
Each task was completed using three systems: a manual paper card system, the EHR digital preference card system, and PREFcards — a cloud-based platform that uses images, multiple note fields, and detailed supply cost information.
Results
The findings were clear. PREFcards was at least 47% faster than both the paper card and EHR preference card systems when measuring combined time across all three tasks.
| Task | Paper Card | EHR Card | PREFcards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create card | 25 min | 25 min | 2 min |
| Edit card | 12 min | 7 min | 2 min |
| Case costing | 5 min | 2 min | 2 min |
Beyond labor savings, BSW was also able to lower waste of unused high-dollar surgical supplies. Surgeon satisfaction scores improved by 45% as procedure turnover time decreased and the correct surgical equipment and supplies were ready and waiting in the OR and treatment rooms.
“Overall, I believe the PREFcards platform provided a much better experience for the nurses and scrub techs before, during and after the procedure.”
— Jessica Estep MSN, RN, CNOR
Why This Matters
Two of the largest ongoing challenges ASCs face are managing surgical supply costs and effective utilization of OR staff to help increase retention and avoid burnout. When preference cards are inaccurate or slow to maintain, both problems get worse.
PREFcards addresses both directly — reducing the manual effort of card management while improving the accuracy that surgical staff and surgeons depend on every case.
Book a demo to see how PREFcards can deliver similar results at your facility.